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Imaging the Games: the Olympics in Art And Newsletter · May/June 2012 · Fields Of Vision · bringing the arts and sport together · http://artsinsport.wordpress.com/ An international conference of the arts in sport · Headingley Carnegie Stadium, Leeds, UK · September 5th & 6th, 2012 Registration and Call for Proposals (July update) Imaging the Games: The Olympics in Art and Visual Culture • arts, sport and aesthetics • celebration and expression of sport through the arts • the cultural representation of sport and physicality • design and architecture in sport • showcase opportunities for arts practitioners and cultural producers • engaging sports fans and communities through the arts • critique and cultural policy PLEASE NOTE – this conference has been rescheduled as a programme of events with a one day conference to be held on Friday 30th November (2012) (see booking information and details on the final page of this Newsletter). Abstracts and proposals [300 words] should be submitted by email to the administrator ASAP. For arts projects, examples may be submitted as attachments or web links, but unless agreed in advance please do not send DVDs or slides. The conference academic papers panel will be considering proposals at regular intervals and early submission or advance notification of intention to submit a proposal Fields of Vision guest speaker, Dr. Mike O’ Mahony from the would be welcome. Proposals for consideration should be University of Bristol (UK) will present a paper on the Olympics, sent to the conference administrator, Samantha Armitage, art and visual culture. Mike is an art historian specialising [email protected] and if applicable please detail in the visual culture of sport and his publications include your organisation / institution. Sport in the USSR: Physical Culture – Visual Culture (2006), The Visual in Sport (with Mike Huggins, 2011) and Olympic About the Conference Visions: Images of the Games through History (2012). He comments as follows: The conference, Fields of Vision -the arts in sport, is convened by Leeds Rugby Arts (Leeds Rugby Foundation) From the first Games of the modern era, held in Athens and hosted in association with the Carnegie Research in 1896, to the present day, the popular image of the Institute (Leeds Metropolitan University). Convening Olympics has been as much forged by the production and steering group members are from Bupa Great North Run dissemination of art and visual culture as by first hand Culture, Charles University Prague, De Montfort University spectatorial experience. From powerful images such as International Centre of Sports History and Culture, Leeds Leni Riefenstahl’s cinematic representation of Jesse Metropolitan University, Leeds Rugby Foundation, Leisure Owens’ victories at the Berlin Olympic Games of 1936, to Studies Association, and the Regional Creative Programme contemporary monuments celebrating the Tommie Smith/ London 2012. John Carlos podium protest at the Mexico Games of 1968, our mental picture of the Olympics has been formed as much Fields of Vision aims to bring together researchers, by the intervention of image producers as by the actions academics, arts practitioners, cultural producers, sports of athletes. The conference presentation will analyse and participants, organisers and representatives and those who discuss some of these iconic images that continue to shape are interested or engaged in the historical, contemporary our engagement with and understanding of the Olympics and cultural relationship between the arts and sport. long after the event itself has passed. A conference of the arts in sport Headingley Carnegie Stadium, Leeds, UK November 30th 2012 This Sporting Life - Eve of Conference Film Contemporary Artists Discuss Their Work The Fields of Vision conference provides an opportunity for contemporary arts practitioners and producers to discuss their work and multi media artist, Jason Minsky, who has Still from Jason Minsky’s video Mare worked on several Liberum, created when he was artist in residence at the Gymnasium, Berwick. [www. sports related projects jasonminsky.com] will illustrate how and why sport is relevant to his aesthetic and creative concerns. The Cultural Olympiad A special public showing of the iconic rugby league film, This Sporting Life (1963), will be shown at the Hyde Park cinema in Leeds on the evening of September 4th. Based on the award winning novel by David Storey, a former professional rugby league player who also wrote the film script, This Sporting Life tells the tale of the trials and tribulations of a fictional Wakefield rugby league player. Directed by Lindsay Anderson it starred Rachel Roberts and Richard Harris, whose acclaimed performance won him a Best Actor Award at the 1963 Cannes Film Festival. NVA’s Speed of Light, part of Edinburgh International Festival and London 2012 The film showing will be introduced by sports historian Festival, 9 August – 1 September. Image: Alan McAteer Professor Tony Collins and sports writer and journalist [ www.speedoflight2012.org.uk]. Anthony Clavane. Sponsored by the UK’s Rugby Football League Foundation, there will be a public discussion on the Guest speaker, Dr.Beatriz Garcia, Head of Research at the film at the end of the showing. Admission will be free to Institute of Cultural Capital at the University of Liverpool conference participants and delegates. will be presenting a paper entitled One Hundred Years Exploring Art and Sport Synergies at the Olympic Games. Sporting Statues Her new book, The Olympic Games and Cultural Policy is due to be published by Routledge. Conference delegate Dr. Chris Stride of the University Beatriz will offer a reflection on the changing nature of of Sheffield will be discussing the Olympic cultural programme, from its inception as an sporting statues with Olympic Arts Competition in 1912 to its current form as a four reference to the Sporting year Olympic Arts Festival or Cultural Olympiad. Highlighting Statues research project. the ongoing tensions and opportunities to use the arts as a [www.offbeat.group.shef. vehicle to ‘blend sport with culture and education’, she will ac.uk/statues] place particular emphasis on recent editions of the Games and points at the distinct achievements of Winter Games In his paper entitled The editions as well as the added value of merging Olympic and Thierry Henry statue: a hollow The Thierry Henry statue, Arsenal Paralympic arts programmes. icon, Chris will argue that FC, 2011 [C.Stride] such statues are constructed The paper ends with a close-up into the London 2012 as icons that can be filled with multiple meanings and are Cultural Olympiad and Festival, noting key advancements designed to limit full interpretation to ‘hardcore’ fans, thus in and reinterpretations of the art – sporting relationship, enhancing both their perception of ownership of the statue which can be a referent for future Games hosts. and their status as ‘true supporters’. A conference of the arts in sport Headingley Carnegie Stadium, Leeds, UK November 30th 2012 Arts Programming and Sport. from the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games by funding ideas and local talent to inspire creativity across the UK. imove is hosted and also funded by Arts Council England. [www.imoveand.com ]. Cricket as Work by Andrew McMillan was commissioned for the imove project, Runs on the Board, a celebration of the over 50’s and the elder cricketer. [www.runsontheboard.co.uk/] His poems express the sensory nuances and narratives of cricket in a series of imaged scenes and sustained metaphorical descriptions. cricket as moving house it’s about positioning where each player might fit; arriving at an empty square of space, getting the feel of your foot on the crew-cut rug of grass; in a glance Jane Grant © Paul Floyd Blake. The imove exhibition, Different Strokes: you know where each and everything should stand Extraordinary Swimmers, photographed by Paul Floyd Blake is at the and then the visitors; intrusion disguised as politeness Mercer Art Gallery, Swan Road, Harrogate until June 5th 2012. the upturned jug of sky; a shot spilling to the boundary Imove* cricket as seascape Tessa Gordziejko, imove Creative Director and Creative sea turned green Programmer for London 2012, will highlight work produced under the well-practised for the imove Cultural Olympiad programme, many of whose strokes of the sun arts projects have embraced sport and physical activity in the players, white a fusion with art forms such as dance, photography, film, sails flapping in the wind, video, sculpture, installation, classical, popular and world directed by the compass music, community arts, theatre and performance. of the cricket ball; setting direction, which way Tessa will describe imove’s mission as ‘to transform people’s to look, while the ebbing relationship with their moving bodies through projects that hopes of men crash blended art and physicality and discuss the challenges of against the changing light communicating this as an abstract construct’. of the scoreboard and the umpire dredges Through examples from imove it will be suggested that his finger up through the air ‘the idea of embodiment has underpinned the sense of to signal another catch movement – at one end of the continuum, the extremes of human performance have inspired narratives for exhibitions, performances and debates; at the other end, Panel Discussion on Dance and Sport moving through landscapes at an immersive and natural pace has defined projects located in specific communities, A panel discussion is being put together for the conference sites and environments’. that will discuss and debate the philosophical, cultural and pedagogic relationship between dance and sport. Her contribution will identify implications for legacy and As highlighted in the March Newsletter the imove project future practice and discuss issues regarding the relationship Dancing On Together, two contemporary dances, one on between the arts and sport. soccer the other on rugby league, choreographed and produced by Sharon Watson, Creative Director of Phoenix * imove celebrates the art of human movement in the run Dance Theatre, will be performed at the conference.
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